Milgram's Behavioral Study of Obedience: Key Findings

Introduction: Obedience as a Social Force

This study explored how obedient people would be when placed in a stressful situation. Researchers designed an experiment in which participants believed they were inflicting pain upon another human being, in order to test the levels of obedience participants would exhibit. The study, along with 14 university seniors, hypothesized that out of 100 people, only 3% would actually complete the full experiment and continue to administer shock treatment after participants began to realize how severely it was affecting the "victim" (Milgram, 1963).

Obedience is a crucial element of the delicate social balance that unites individuals within a larger culture. According to the study, "obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to" (Milgram, 1963, p. 371). It is essentially a requirement of living within a modern society, which depends on collaboration to make communal living work. It serves as both a predictor and a determinant of behavior — whether the individual is demonstrating obedience or rebelling against its demands. Thus, "obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. It is the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority" (Milgram, 1963, p. 371).

The Nature of Destructive Obedience

There are a number of different forms of obedience, some of which bind citizens to worthy and positive causes. Yet other forms of obedience can turn much darker. Destructive obedience, for example, can cause the individual to act immorally in order to fulfill an obligation of compliance toward a larger authority. Blind obedience is not necessarily a positive force within any given society or culture. The researchers cite Hitler's Nazi Germany as an illustrative example: Hitler was at the very source of the atrocities committed, yet it was out of obedience to his rule that such extreme and inhumane practices were carried out by others. Destructive obedience can turn ordinary citizens into destructive and dangerous forces.

Studying obedience can prove an incredibly difficult task, as it is inherently abstract. Over the years, the academic discourse has produced several major studies aimed at exploring the process of obedience within both individual and group psychology. Milgram (1961) created a context for studying obedience in which a participant unfamiliar with the actual procedure was the one administering shocks to a confederate victim. This structure heavily influenced the methodology and overall procedure of the current study.

Study Design and Methodology

There were 40 subjects, all male and between the ages of 20 and 50. All resided in the general region surrounding New Haven, Connecticut, as the study took place on a university campus. Recruitment was conducted by reaching out to the local community through mailed advertisements offering a payment of $4.50 for participation. According to the study itself, 40% of participants were white-collar businessmen, 37.5% were unskilled workers, and only 1% were considered professionals (Milgram, 1963).

Participants were told they were taking part in a prestigious study regarding memory and how it is affected by external elements. They were only later informed that those external elements would consist of degrees of pain. Participants were entirely unaware that the shocks were not actually being administered to the "victim." Subjects were greeted by an experimenter described as a 31-year-old high school biology teacher. The study notes that "his manner was impassive, and his appearance somewhat stern throughout the experiment," and he was dressed in a grey lab coat traditional of research contexts (Milgram, 1963, p. 373). Participants were also introduced to the "victim" — an actor playing a 47-year-old accountant described as being "of Irish-American stock, whom most observers found mild-mannered and likable" (Milgram, 1963, p. 373). The researchers deliberately presented a likable victim rather than one who might be easily demonized by participants.

Conclusion: Implications of the Findings

Overall, the study's findings were not expected by the research team. The study offers a striking look at the "sheer strength of obedient tendencies manifested" (Milgram, 1963, p. 376). The results defied the pre-study hypothesis and revealed how willing participants were to continue obeying, even when they understood they were causing harm. Furthermore, the findings identified specific factors that appear to heighten obedience. Monetary compensation was one such factor — participants cited payment as a compelling reason to continue, even in the face of the distressing situational context. The ethical and psychological implications of these findings have continued to shape the study of authority, compliance, and human behavior in social psychology.

References

Milgram, Stanley. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 67(4), 371–378.